Recovery of Waste Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites Using Microwave-Induced Pyrolysis

摘要

Carbon fibers with the features of high strength-to-weight and high stiffness-to-weight have been widely used in many sectors, such as automotive, appliances, consumer goods, electronics, etc. With the rapid increase of its application, the recovery or recycling technology are thereby urged to be developed. Composites are defined as a combination of two or more materials (matrix and reinforcement) to create a new material. For composite applications, thermoset resins are the most commonly used matrix materials and carbon fiber served as the reinforced component. Nowadays, the common treatment for the waste carbon fiber composites are landfill disposal, or incineration in Euro union, as well as in Taiwan. Microwave pyrolysis can yield economically valuable solid, liquid, and gaseous products. Microwave is a selective and bulk heating radiation, therefore enhances the efficiency, shorten the reaction time, and reduces the energy consuming of a reaction. The study was aimed to develop a microwave pyrolysis process to recover carbon fiber from different types of waste carbon fiber composites and the characteristics of recycled carbon fibers were also examined. The results showed that the resin matrix can be effectively removed as high as 99% for 9 min microwave radiation with nitrogen as carrier gas.